Dental x-ray film support



Aug. .6, 1935. 1-1., VAN VALKENBURG 8 DENTAL X-RAY FILM SUPPORT FiledJan. 11, 1934 INVENTOR Horace Van l/a/lemwy Patented Aug. 6, 1935;;UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE' Horace Van Valkenburg, Cleveland Heights,Ohio Application January 11, 1934, Serial No. 706,304

3 Claims.

This invention relates to dental X-ray film supports and particularly tothat type of support which is fitted or provided with a portion to begripped between the jaws of the patient for the purpose of firmly andimmovably supportinga film package in place within the mouth cavity andbehind the teeth during exposure to X-rays.

Films for dental X-ray work are commonly marketed in packet form, suchas illustrated and described in Letters Patent No. 1,293,323, grantedFebruary 4, 1919 and No. 1,582,730, granted April 27, 1926 to Arthur A.Buck, the

packet consisting of one or more usually oblong rectangular films,superposed upon each other if duplicates are used, and enclosed in awrapper or cover so that the packet as a whole is moisture proof and ofrectangular wafer-like form. Such packets are frequently placed inposition within the mouth cavity behind the teeth and are held by thepressure of the finger or thumb of the patient while the exposure ismade. Again, such film packets are sometimes provided with the socalledbite wing, as described in Letters Patent No. 1,467,876, grantedSeptember 11, 1923 'to Howard R. Raper, but the last named bite wingpacket, due to its special construction, is relatively expensive ascompared with the standard simple wafer like'package free of bite wingat- I tachinents.

The present invention has for its object to provide an improved holderor support for such film packets capable of use with standard wafer-likefilm packages free of bite wing attachments, and of such form as toenable the same support or 'holderftobeused. overand over again withsuccessive standard film packets, thereby taking advantage of the lowercost of the standard packet and avoiding extra charge and expense forbite wing attachments, but nevertheless with all of -the usualadvantages of bite wing anchorage in the mouth. I

A further object of the invention is to provide a holder or supportcapable of repeated use and including a shield or guard opaque to X-raysand adapted to shield or protect, for example, one half of the filmpacket under exposure, as a result of which separate exposures can bemade, first of the upper and then of the lower teeth, with more accuraterepresentations or delineations thereof, as will more fully appearhereafter.

A further object of the invention is to provide a support or holder ofthe kind described, which is reinforced against loss of shape and forthe purpose of increasing its durability, which is readily sterilized,and which enables accurate photographic impressions to be produced.

Further objects of the invention are in part obvious and in part willappear more in detail hereinafter. 1

In the drawing, Fig. 1 represents a perspective view of one form ofholder embodying the invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation onsubstantially the: line 2-2, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a similar view, showing amodification, and illustrating the film packet in place; Fig. 4 is adetail perspective view of one form of the metal shield; Fig. 5 is adetail elevation from the right in Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a similar viewshowing another form and shape of holder; and Fig. 7 is a sectional planview on approximately the line 1-7, Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing, the film packet is generally indicated at I.It may be any form of standard film packet, such, for example, as thoseillustrated and described in the patents to Buck hereinbefore referredto, including not only one or two superposed layers of film, but alsothe wrappers therefor, which may be either or both of paper, metal orthe like. One face of the packet cover may include a layer of materialopaque to X-rays, such as thin sheet lead, if desired. The details ofthe standard film packet form no part of the present invention and suchpacket is therefore illustrated more or less conventionally.

The-holder or support which constitutes my invention is generally marked2. It comprises a body portion 3 of relatively thin or flat pouch-likeform with a central cavity 4 opening through a mouth along one edge ofthe pouch and designed to receive or accept a portion of the standardfilm packet l, and more particularly approximately one-half of such filmpacket. These film packets, as before stated, are usually oblong, and asillustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, two supports or holders will usually beprovided, one which is relatively long and narrow, as illustrated inFig. 5, designed to receive the film packet with its longer dimensionhorizontal, and another, illustrated in Fig. 6, shaped and fitted toreceive the film packet with its longer axis vertical. Otherwise, theholders shown in Figs. 5 and 6 may be of identical form.

The pouch-like body portion 3 may be made of any suitable material whichexerts no harmful effect upon the mouth tissues or the teeth, which isagreeable to hold in the mouth and, of course, is tasteless, and whichpreferably is not damaged by use and may be sterilized and thereforeused repeatedly. One suitable material for the purpose is rubber or someother slightly flexible but nevertheless fairly strong material.Bakelite or other phenolic condensation products may be used, but rubberor other materials are suitable for the purpose. ttached to the pouchand preferably extending along one of the lips or edges 5 of its mouth,is a bite wing member 6, which may be of a width substantially equal tothe full length of the pouch mouth, but which is shown as narrower, inFigs. 5 and 6. This bite wing is adapted to be received and gripped orheld between the teeth of the patient and should preferably be of amaterial which is slightly yielding or flexible, such as rubber, butwith sufficient rigidity and resiliency to maintain its general shapeand with sufficient strength to enable it to be pulled out when theholder is in place in the mouth so as to adjust the pouch and the filmpacket contained therein into close juxtaposition with the innersurfaces of the teeth. The wing, for example, may be made of rubber andbe integral with the rubber of the pouch portion, although this is notessential. To strengthen the parts and prevent deformation, suitablereinforcement may be provided, such as a rolled or beaded portion l ofthe rubber extending around the lip of the pouch mouth, and, if desired,a stiff spring wire member 8 may be molded into the rubber, such wireextending in loop form clear around the pouch mouth and having its endportions bent to form arms 3a which are imbedded within the material ofthe wing. This metal reinforcement tends to hold the lips of the mouthclose to each other and to avoid undesired bending or buckling of thefilm packet when in place, but nevertheless aids in conforming it to theteeth.

As stated, the pouch portion of the body is of a shape correspondingwith approximately onehalf of the standard film packet with which it isto be used, so that only one-half of the packet and the films thereinare within the pouch when in use. One purpose of this arrangement is toenable either the upper teeth alone or the lower teeth alone to beseparately exposed, for which purpose the pouchlike body portion may beprovided with a shield or guard opaque to X-rays. Such shield or guardmay be made of any suitable material, such as thin sheet lead. Forexample, sheet lead may be bent or formed into substantially the shapeshown in Fig. 4, by bending over its side edges, as at 9, and its loweredge as at iii, to form a skeleton metal pouch open on one side withnarrow flanges around its edges. The rubber to form the pouch 3 may bemolded upon or applied to the back or outer surface of the guard H, sothat in the finished holder, as shown in Fig. 2, the lead guard formsthe inner surface of that wall of the pouch to which the wing S isattached. Eowever, the shield opaque to X-rays may be made and formed asa part of the pouch in any desired manner. In Fig. 3, for example, theshield i2 is a simple rectangular sheet of thin lead molded within thewall of the pouch itself. The

only diiference between the guards I! and I2 is that the former isprovided with the narrow flanges 9, l extending around the bends of thepouch and to some extent reinforcing them. In either case, when theholder is provided with a shield or guard such as described, and is laidin place in the mouth with the film packet inside the mouth cavity andbehind the teeth and the bite wing clamped between the teeth, exposureto X-rays will cause an imprint or shadow of the teeth only upon thatportion of the film which is not covered by the shield or guard. In theposition shown in Fig. 3 the exposure will therefore be of the upperteeth, and if the holder is turned upside down with its pouch mouth atthe bottom, the exposure will be of the lower teeth. As a consequence,it is possible for the operator to locate the target of his X-ray tubehorizontally opposite the mid point of the teeth to be exposed, orsomewhere along the dotted line A, Fig, 3, which considerably reducesdistortion by divergence of the rays over the distortion when the X-raytube target is in the plane of the bite of the teeth, as will be readilyunderstood. More faithful shadow photographs are therefore produced.

Of course, it will be understood that the holder shown in Fig. 6 isusually used for the anterior teeth while that inFig. is used forposterior teeth, although they are not restricted to such use.

The holder described, after use, can be very readily sterilized inboiling water and is therefore capable of repeated use. Each photographtaken bears two separate exposures, one of the lower teeth and one o-iupper teeth, separated by nothing more than the shadow of thereinforcing wire 3 unless even it happens to be shielded from producinga shadow upon the film by the shield RE.

What I claim is:

l. A support or holder for standard dental X--ray film packets,comprising a pouch member shaped to removably receive a standard filmpacket, and a bite wing connected to said member, one of the walls ofsaid member being provided with a shield or guard opaque to X-rays.

2. A support or holder for standard dental X-ray film packets,comprising a pouch member shaped to removably receive a standard filmpacket, and a bite wing connected to said member, that wall of themember to which the bite wing is connected being provided with a layerof material opaque to X-rays.

3. A holder or support for standard X-ray film packets for dental use,comprising a pouchlike body member shaped to remcvably receivesubstantially one-half of a standard wafer form film packet and providedwith a bite wing extending outwardly from the edge of its mouth, thatwall of the pouch to which the bite wing is connected being providedwith a shield member opaque to X-rays.

HORACE VAN VALKENBURG.

